As I’ve been preparing for this season I’ve spent considerable time thinking about last season. You see, a dear friend of mine came to stay with us for a few days last season so that we could duck hunt "hard" just like the old days. It had been close to 10 years since we had the opportunity to hunt together and we just about picked up where we had left off. The only differences were that now we were older and we were hunting a different state. My buddy arrived on a Wednesday and we immediately met to take care of his license with the local agent whom I'd become quite familiar with. After that was done, we headed back to my house to get him settled in. Our plan for Thursday was to hunt from sunrise to sunset...... Just like the old days. The weather was projected to be partly cloudy with the temps in the low 30's with a 15-20 kt wind, it was going to be perfect. I'd had spent a considerable amount of time scouting the 3 days leading up to his arrival to be sure I could put him on the birds and hadn't hunted a few spots for 2 weeks just to be sure they would be fresh.
Thursday morning was exciting, we were both up early, the forecast still looked decent and we were going to be hunting like the old days. After stopping at the local gas station to top off the coffee and grab some breakfast we climbed back in the truck. I fired up the 'ol Ford and took a look in the mirror......"Yup, its going to be a good day" I said. "What makes you say that?" he scoffed. "Because my trailer lights are still working I replied." We laughed and continued on our drive to the boat ramp, we hadn’t missed a beat since we were last together. Launching the boat was as easy as it had been years ago, each of us immediately resumed our duties and we were loaded up and ready to go in record time. He cast our lines and we made the quick ride to where we would park the boat for the day. We needed two trips to get all the gear to the blind and it didn't take us long to get the decoys set up. For the next several hours we watched birds land in our pond and swim around. It was mostly divers that morning but at least there were ducks. Lunch time came and went and it was time to start thinking about the evening flight. We decided to sit in some bushes on the other side of the pond with the sun at our backs for the evening flight. The puddle ducks made the evening flight just as we excepted and we closed out a good day.
Friday was scheduled to be another epic sunrise to sunset hunting kind of day but honestly, our bodies were miserable from the day before. Being out in the wind when the temperature felt like 20 degrees all day took its toll on us especially when we weren't as young as we used to be. None the less, we attacked Friday morning like we always did. We drove south that day and left the boat at home. We parked on the side of a busy highway and trudged our way through the woods to the salt marsh. We put out a few decoys and waited for the sun to come up. For the first hour we saw birds everywhere, just not with in shooting distance of us. During the second hour we watched geese and ducks land a few hundred yards out. We attempted to work the geese but they just kept piling in to where all the other geese were. We decided to get up and walk down a little bit to where we had seen some ducks land in an attempt to jump them. That idea didn't work out so well especially since after we walked down about 100 yards we watched several dozen geese take off from where they had been loafing all morning and fly directly over where we had just been sitting..... DAMN! That pretty much put a damper on the morning and we returned to our spot to sit and wait as it started to drizzle. We packed up at lunch and headed back to the truck. After busting through 100 yards of brush we popped out along the highway. Something caught my eye to my left and I looked to see "The Man" walking towards us. He kindly checked our gear and licenses, conversed with us for a few minutes and then went on his way. It was a few tense minutes but we passed the spot check. We planned to move to another spot for the evening hunt but couldn't muster up the energy. We were exhausted from the morning and the day before. We retreated back to the house, changed our clothes and then went out for a late lunch and a few beers.
We decided that Saturday morning would lead us back to the same location as the first day of our hunt however, this time we decided we would concentrate on the ducks for the first flight and then direct our attention to Atlantic Brant. The duck portion of our plan didn't go so well so we decided it was time for Brant. We picked up our spread, loaded up the boat and drove out to a spot we had seen birds funnel through for days. We ran the boat up onto an island, grabbed our layout blinds and set up at the edge of the water. No decoys just grassed in layout blinds was all we needed. Within minutes we had action. Birds naturally funneled through two pieces of land and all our shots were less than 20 yards. The only issue was the fast moving current. When we knocked down birds, I ran to the boat to pick up the downed birds and my partner would stand on the edge of the island vectoring me in with hand signals. It was a good fun limit of birds but in all honestly, it was fun because we had worked as a team. We watched birds from a far for days, developed a plan and put it in action. We put ourselves into position day in and day out to get shots and take birds. We had gone on the attack instead of letting the birds come to us and we had won the battle. Now, I must take a quick second to recognize the folks that were enjoying their morning cup of coffee on the balcony of their condo. For when I jumped off my boat, hopped the fence on your dock, chased a crippled bird down the rocks, and attempted a killing swing with my oar I didn't see you there watching me....I apologize for ruining your breakfast. How a video of an idiot engaged in that shenanigan hasn't gone viral on the internet yet I'll never know.
All in all I had a wonderful time with an old friend. We didn’t kill limits every day and that’s quite alright because we enjoyed catching up and laughing about the old days. Our excursions lead us to realize that we weren't as nimble as we used to be a decade ago, we could still pull up to the ramp and either launch or recover a boat faster than anyone else, and that over the years our shooting skills have drastically improved. The bonds that are built in the outdoors whether its between family or friends are ever lasting. The time spent in the blind or around the camp fire is one of the greatest parts of the experience. The outdoors provide you with opportunities to have to rely on and trust someone else and that trust you build goes a long way. I encourage you all to push hard to get together with an old hunting buddy and experience new memories. Get together and laugh at all the dumb things you used to do. Reconnect and catch up on life in general. Since my friend and I had last hunted together we had changed jobs, experienced divorce, marriage, had kids, and made plans for retirment. We had been talking about getting together for a hunt for at least 5 years and just finally pushed to make it happen. As we said our goodbyes we made an agreement that it wouldn't be another 10 years before we hunted together again. I knew that my long lost hunting partner had made an impact on my family because as I watched him drive down the road my daughter turned and said "Daddy, I'm going to miss Uncle Nic." With a nod of the head I replied, "Me too."
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